Organizing around reproductive rights has been happening in the United States for over 150 years. As reproductive health technologies continues to grow, more and more options suddenly became available to men and women in this country and around the world. Simultaneously, the movement to keep the health options out of the hands of men and women has been active and engaged as well. While many people in this country believe the “pro-life” movement to be strictly about abortion, the reality is, the “pro-life” movement is about controlling people’s reproductive destiny. As we make our way into a world where reproductive health services and options are increasing every day, we also need to understand the history behind how these technologies have been used against specific communities.

The need to expand the reproductive rights work we do into a broader, social justice-based frame is directly connected to how successful we will be in ensuring that everyone in this country has the information and services available to them that they need in order to have healthy lives. We are beginning to see that our reproductive health isn’t just limited to clinic access or contraceptions available. Rather, our reproductive destinies are tied up into a number of factors that play out in our every day lives — the air we breathe, how much money we make, whether we have health insurance or not. Our ability to have children, to not have children, to have families, to raise these families — these are all things that are impacted by external factors, and it is only in identifying these factors and working together to minimize or remove this impact that we can say we truly live in a just society.